A blog on the current crises in the Middle East and news accounts unpublished by the US press. Daily timeline of events in Iraq as collected from stories and dispatches in the French and Italian media: Le Monde (Paris), Il Corriere della Sera (Milan), La Repubblica (Rome), L'Orient-Le Jour (Beirut) and occasionally from El Mundo (Madrid).

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Iraq Timeline for Tuesday 16 November

22:28 US lieutenant charged with August homicide. Lt. Erick Anderson of the 1st US cavalry was formally charged with premeditated homicide for the murder of a wounded Iraqi insurgent in Sadr City. The officer ordered his subordinates, Sgt. Cardenas Alban and Sgt. Johnny Horne, to shoot the insurgent.

21:43 Mossul, US gains control of police stations.

21:40 Kirkuk, mortar rounds fired at government building, 3 dead. Rebels fired mortars a the provincial government headquarters in Kirkuk.

19:59 Straw: "We have seen the video" The British Foreign Office says it has seen the video showing the execution of Margaret Hassan.

18:45 Husband of Margaret Hassan: I need her back. Those who kidnapped her, what did they achieve?, said Tahsin Hassan, husband of Margaret Hassan.

18:40 British embassy in Baghdad confirms death of Margaret Hassan.

18:34 Hassan execution video is authentic.

18:25 Video of execution of Margaret Hassan circulated.

18:03 Clashes in Baquba. Renewed clashes between US troops and rebels in Baquba. Insurgents attacked US troops and police headquarters with light arms and shoulder-launched RPGs.

18:00 Al Qaeda issues fatwah: "Legitimate to kill women and children." Saudi Islamic ideologue and terrorist Abdullah Bin Naser Al-Rashid suggests that the current situation may call for a change to Islamic law to permit the kidnapping and killing of foreign women.

15:35 Oil and gas pipelines attacked and set ablaze near Kirkuk. An oil pipeline passing through the village of al-Sarai, 75 km west of Kirkuk, and a gas pipeline near al-Riyad, 40 km west of Kirkuk were attacked and set ablaze. Fire crews are busy elsewhere putting out wellfires.

15:30 Firefights in Ramadi. US troops and rebels clash in downtown Ramadi in the Maared quarter.

14:58 Carbomb at checkpoint kills marine. A carbomb blew up at a US checkpoing between Fallujah and Baghdad, killing a US marine. After the suicide bombing, a group of insurgents fired mortar rounds at US troops..13:56 Eighteen bodies, some decapitated, found south of Baghdad. Bodies were found in Latifiyah, south of Baghdad. Bodies had been shot full of holes or burned and were in an advanced state of decomposition.

13:55 US conducts offensive in Mosul. After Fallujah, the theatre of conflict has shifted to Mossul.

01:20 Fallujah: Marine kills wounded rebel in mosque. According to embedded journalist Kevin Sites, a marine noted a wounded insurgent in a mosque and shouted, "He's fucking playing dead!" before shooting the insurgent in the head.